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Passing the Barre: London Dance Schools
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20237 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
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7 / 1992 |
1,893 Words |
| Author
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Kathrine Sorley Walker
Kathrine Sorley Walker is ballet and dance critic of the
London Daily Telegraph (London) and author of Ninette de
Valois: Idealist without Illusions (Hamish Hamilton, London,
1987) and De Basil's Ballets Russes (Atheneum, New York, 1983). |
Each summer in London, ballet-goers assemble eagerly to see the Royal Ballet School's annual show. It is often a matinee, usually at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and combines pupils from both the upper and lower schools. Ballets chosen, with due care for the quality of talent on display, range from a full-length Sleeping Beauty to mixed bill of short repertoire works. For the aficionado, it is a chance to see great dancers of the future; for the students, it is an unforgettable opportunity to dance on a historic stage under professional conditions. As for the teachers, it is a moment to exhibit to the artistic directors and staff of both companies--the Royal Ballet, based at Covent Garden, and the Birmingham Royal Ballet--the present capacity and future potential of the young men and women they have trained, some from their earliest years.
Great international names have surfaced at these programs. In 1959, Antoinette Sibley danced Swanilda in Coppelia; in 1965 Lesley Collier was the Young Girl in The Two Pigeons; in 1980 Alessandra Ferri danced the duet in MacMillan's Concerto; the Bluebird pas de deux in 1984 featured Miyako Yoshida and Errol Pickford (both now admirable principal dancers); and in 1986 Darcey Bussell, the much-talked-of new youngster at Covent Garden, danced Odile in act 3 of Swan Lake.
The 1990 Covent Garden matinee was a mixed bill rather than one long traditional ballet. Typically for the Royal Ballet School, which has always stressed the importance of folk dance and national dance in its curriculum, it included the Paquita polonaise and mazurka as well as Irish jigs and Scottish reels. The divertissement included a charming small work created by Antony Tudor for the Juilliard School in New
... (1989 of 11771 Characters)
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